<Begin Segment 15>

PM: Well he was very strict, especially with me, with all kinds of manners and customs, which I feel is, was good for me because...

SY: So he, well, you were, being the oldest, you were probably the closest to him.

PM: In one sense, but also he was so strict that I could never, ever speak back to him or talk back to him. But he always said, "If you're going to say something about somebody it better be nice or don't say it at all," so he had his principles, which was good.

SY: And he taught, he taught you manners too? Certain things that you --

PM: Oh yes, women don't smoke, women don't chew gum, women don't stay out late in bars. [Laughs] So he was very strict. Women don't stay out late just on dates even.

SY: So when you started dating, how did that affect you?

PM: He was insistent that I'm home by a certain time, and I tried to adhere to those rules.

SY: You never got in trouble.

PM: No.

SY: [Laughs] Not that you can remember.

PM: Right. I don't, yeah, I just know if I came back after ten o'clock at night he'd yell at me, "You're very late," and the boy took off in a flash. [Laughs]

SY: So before you were married did you go out with a lot of young men?

PM: I did, from church, and he was critical of people that I saw, but Mom was very, very good. But then I started to date my husband Fred and Dad kind of liked him, so he actually hired him to work in the office so he could see what kind of a prospect he would be for a husband.

SY: I see. And how did he come to like Fred so much?

PM: He checked on his background because he came from Yamaguchi-ken, which is what he really wanted because his parents were from Yamaguchi-ken, and he found out that Fred is okay and his parents are okay, except that the parents are strict. But he thought it would be alright for me to go out with him.

SY: I see. And did you meet his parents, Fred's parents, when you started dating him?

PM: Not...

SY: Right away.

PM: Not right away, yes.

SY: And they were living in Denver?

PM: They were living in Denver. And also he was a Christian. Fred used to come to the church, so that made it nice too.

SY: The church in Denver. So you were always going to church, right? From camp and then you found the church in Denver and then joined that church. So tell us a little bit about Fred's background. Where did, where did he go to camp?

PM: He didn't go to camp, actually. He was born in Stockton, then his family moved to Salinas, where they worked for a farm growing onions. And they were there in Salinas until the war broke out, and they decided to go on their own to Colorado, and it's a city called Ault, so Fred was the oldest and so he drove their family car all the way to Ault, so he never went to camp. He lived there until they came out to Denver.

SY: I see. So he had how many siblings?

PM: He had three, four actually. Rose, Willie, and the youngest that has passed away, so actually there are four of them, so three siblings.

SY: But the three were the ones that...

PM: He drove with his parents all the way to Ault.

SY: Wow. And then so he was how old?

PM: He was about nineteen or twenty, and he volunteered for the army and so he went into the service, and he was, yeah.

SY: During the war he was in the service?

PM: But then the war ended so he didn't have to go to Europe, so he was asked to go to Japanese training so he could go to Japan for the occupation. So he was there for the occupation.

SY: So he was in the Military Intelligence Service.

PM: Not quite, but he was in the...

SY: He was in the army, but he, so was it because of his language skills that he was asked to go to Japan?

PM: He had to learn.

SY: So he spent time in Japan, then?

PM: Yes, he did.

SY: This was all before you met him.

PM: Right.

SY: And then he came out of the army and then came directly back to Denver. Or Ault? Were they still living in Ault?

PM: Ault, uh-huh. Then he came out to Denver.

SY: I see. So how did you two meet?

PM: At church.

SY: And he was just, you were both just attending church and that's just --

PM: Yes, yes. I was in the choir, or I might've been playing the organ, so he used to come to church and he asked me out, so we started going out.

SY: I see. And was he in, going to school then, when you met?

PM: He was, yes, going to school for machine shorthand.

SY: Machine shorthand? Oh, so you do it like a typewriter?

PM: Right, right.

SY: Was that useful then?

PM: I don't know, but it was a business school that he went to. Then he graduated, but he couldn't find a job, so then he went to work for a produce firm.

AK: We have four minutes left.

SY: Okay. So, okay, we have, but during this time that you met him you were working.

PM: Yes, and I was also going to school during the day at the university -- in the evening, University of Colorado Extension School.

SY: And you were studying what?

PM: Bookkeeping, accounting. Business.

SY: So you always took business courses. And that was something you enjoyed?

PM: Yes, very much. I took four years at night.

SY: And you knew that that's what you wanted to do?

PM: Yes.

SY: And you were, but did you always want to work for the family, or did you want to do --

PM: No. I wanted to work otherwise. But I learned a lot working with Dad 'cause he was very, very strict and made me use my head. So I learned to be quick and accurate.

SY: I see. That was his, interesting.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright &copy; 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.